The My Lai tragedy occurred during the Vietnam War in 1968 in South Vietnam. How many Vietnamese civilians were actually slaughtered by members of the U.S. military that day will perhaps never be known, but most reports use the word "hundreds." Infants, toddlers, and elderly Vietnamese were murdered.
Our job is to understand the personal AND situational factors which might have led to this event. Included on this web page are links that reveal the details of the engagement leading up to and including the My Lai massacre as well as links that describe the outcomes of the investigations and trials that ensued. Interviews from CourtTV, editorials from various sources, and news articles are also linked.
"Join with the people! Understand their life, use phrases from their language and honor their customs and laws...Above all else you are members of the U.S. Military Forces on a difficult mission, responsible for all your official and personal actions. Reflect honor upon yourself and the United States of America."--words from the "Pocket Card, 'Nine Rules', given to each member of the US Armed forces in Vietnam by the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. Read all nine rules and other related Pocket Cards.
"The Vietnamese survivors who had left that morning to go to the markets either in the west or the east came back and found all of their family and friends dead or wounded, estimated to me that there were at least 500 who had lost their lives at the ditch, at the crossroads and in hooches that were burned. There was nothing left standing, there wasn't a house left, an animal left or a person left standing." --Richard Hammer (author, originally a reporter for the New York Times covering Vietnam) in an interview with CourtTV
"Looking at an event like My Lai some 30 years after it occurred can sometimes seem like a dry event. But we have to remember that the people killed were women, and children, and one Buddhist monk who begged Lt. Calley not to kill him before having a bullet fired through his head. These people were unarmed and unprotected and these events happened at least in part while a warrant officer stopped his helicopter and got out and begged men not to shoot the people who were huddled in a ditch, who were then raked with fire." --Raymond Bround, CourtTV anchor and trial attorney with expertise in law and war crimes, during an interview with CourtTV
Here are some links that either document the event or provide editorials and analyses.
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| CourtTV (Courtroom Television Network), for its series "The Greatest Trials of All Time" | The genesis of it all: Ridenhour's original letter to President Nixon, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretaries of State, Defense, and the Army, and members of Congress. CourtTV writes, "If not for the letter that former serviceman Ron Ridenhour composed detailing what he had learned about My Lai, word of the tragedy might never have come to light." || CourtTV's interview with Ridenhour || Backgrounder on the incident, including audio clips and written material on both the Vietnamese War and Lt. William Calley || Details about the trial || Information about the aftermath || Interview with William Eckhart, Army prosecutor, who is thus described by CourtTV: "William Eckhardt is the former Army prosecutor who led the series of prosecutions related to My Lai. He examined much of the evidence that General William Peers gathered from his investigation into the My Lai massacre, and coordinated the cases against Calley, Medina and the others who were investigated as part of the My Lai probe. " || Interview with one of Calley's defense attorneys, Keneth Raby || CourtTV's bibliography on My Lai || |
| WGBH Educational Foundation, produced for PBS and PBS Online | This short overview was part of a television series on the Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre. |
| Life Magazine's photos and text from the December 5th, 1969 issue are now posted online | The Massacre at Mylai: "The order was to destroy Mylai and everything in it" (Warning for the faint of heart: Each "thumbnail" picture can be clicked on, thereby bringing you a very large image showing vivid details of a gruesome day) |
| "Pentagram" (produced by Comprint Military Publication, part of the New Media Group of Gazette Newspapers) | Army cites heroes of My Lai |
| The University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law; project researched by Professor Doug Linder |
|| All of the links from Professor Doug Linder's report can be accessed through the following link: Famous American Trials: The My Lai Courts-Martial 1970| || || Pocket Cards distributed by the U.S. Military Command || U.S. Army Field Manual: The law of land warfare || Geneva Conventions on the Laws of War || My Lai chain of command presented as a graph || Company C: Actions on 16 and 17 March 1968 || Chronology of events relating to the massacre at My Lai || Suppression of evidence || Lt. Gen. Peers report: The general findings, including names of officers and enlisted men, and recommendations for courts-martial || Specifics of Peers' report on Col. Henderson and Captain Medina || Peers report on the My Lai incident: A summary || |
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Time Magazine, March 16, 1998, Vol. 151, No. 10. |
Echoes of My Lai "Thirty years after a brutal Vietnam War massacre, the survivors, and their children, still ask: Why?" |
| University of Florida | When war becomes a crime: The case of My Lai |
| Posted on the website for the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a high school. |
Review of editorials on My Lai: Searching for consensus (Article was written by a former student of this high school in 1995.) |
| University of Missouri's School of Journalism | An evaluative project for a History of American Journalism class: My Lai: An American tragedy || Early reports of the incident in the press || |
| Texas Tech University | List of archival records on My Lai. The archives are not web linked, but if you're ever in Lubbock, Texas... |
| BBC (British Broadcast Corp.) | "Murder in the name of war -- My Lai" includes a Java-animated chronology of the events and multiple links |
| ABC (American Broadcast Corp.) |
ABC Series, "The Century" webpages contain these links: || Backgrounder on the Charlie Company: Charlie Company seeks revenge || Calley on trial: "Just following orders" || Hugh Thompson: Thompson rescued civilians || Investigating the massacre || Mike Terry admits to "mercy killings" || ABCNEWS.com: Second Opinion: "When the killing is easy:" Creating a killing machine |
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